09

“It’s darker than I expected. If someone tried a test of courage here, they’d probably soil more underwear than they brought.”

“Incantation: ‘I desire your eyes. I desire your ears. Save me from the world of the blind,’—enemy detection.”

The forest itself remained dark.

However, through Ains’s detection magic, he could grasp the surroundings as if seizing them in his hand—the positions and numbers of magical beasts, even their size and shape.

If he focused deeply enough and calmed his mind further, he could even perceive the entire forest.

But at his current level, that was still beyond him.

“Oh? Did one already come out, thinking I’m food?”

A silver wolf approached, drool dripping from its fangs.

In addition to its ferocious temperament, it possessed an excellent sense of smell.

The silver wolf clearly recognized Ains as prey.

But Ains felt no sense of urgency.

He generated water in his left hand. The water spread thinly, coating his entire left hand.

Ains pointed at the silver wolf with his water-covered index finger.

Perhaps taking it as a provocation, the beast kicked off the ground with its hind legs and leapt straight toward Ains’s left hand. Its movement was just barely within the limits of what Ains’s eyes could track.

In this close-range exchange, there was no time to generate and fire a water ball.

‘This water magic isn’t some gentle kind of magic.’

Just a few more centimeters.

The silver wolf seemed to think it had its prey, a faint look of triumph appearing on its face.

But in the very next moment, the silver wolf was split cleanly in two, left and right.

Even with this power, it was still water magic.

“You see, if you release water at ultra-high speed and high density, it gets sharp enough to cut like a sword saint’s single swing. …Well, I’ve never actually seen a sword saint.”

Water Cutter.

A spell Ains had created himself by applying the idea of dripping water boring through stone.

“I can’t use fire here, after all.”

Thinking this allowed him to maintain a comfortable safety margin, Ains moved deeper into the forest.

“Let’s casually search for children who went into the forest while also looking for magical beasts that can use magic.”

…Something was wrong.

Silica felt a sense of unease as she ran behind Evan.

Silica and Evan had run back home to fetch their equipment, leaving Ains behind. Now fully armed and running toward the forest, they still hadn’t passed Ains at all.

Since the road was a single straight path, not passing him was impossible.

Silica wondered if she should report this to Evan, but letting her thoughts wander to other matters before entering the night forest was dangerous.

She judged it best not to say anything for now and kept running.

They passed the houses, villagers desperately begging, “Please find the children!” as they headed toward the forest.

Evan, too, felt the same unease as Silica.

And what made it decisive was that there had been a muddy patch along the road to the forest—and there, two parallel lines remained, as if wheels had passed through.

“…That kid Ains probably went into the forest…”

To avoid worrying Silica, Evan hadn’t mentioned this.

However, with both of them grasping the situation, they began searching for Ains as well, along with the village children.

Ains was in a wheelchair. And with the forest this densely packed with trees, Evan reasoned that he couldn’t be moving freely.

He likely hadn’t gone deeper than the children. If they found the children, they would naturally find Ains as well.

At the forest entrance—

Several members of the search party had already gathered, fully equipped.

“Let’s keep the number of torches to a minimum. The more concentrated the light, the easier we are for those magical beasts to target.

We’ll enter with the minimum needed to secure visibility. Cover each other’s blind spots and coordinate carefully.”

At Evan’s instructions, everyone nodded.

“Let’s go.”

Once they entered the undergrowth, an even stronger sense of unease clung to their bodies.

How to describe it—a feeling of being watched from all directions by countless eyes. Not merely watched, but appraised as prey.

It was profoundly uncomfortable.

Scouts, who played a vital role even in hunting, climbed trees in the darkness and strained their eyes.

“No good, Evan. My eyes are useless in the night forest.”

One of the scouts jumped down from a tree—

—but failed to land properly and collapsed onto the ground.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Sorry, sorry. There’s such a big difference between day and night. And with this bad footing… yeah, free movement isn’t possible here, Evan. We’ll have to stay close together and move slowly, covering blind spots as best we can.”

How long would it take to reach the children?

Slowly, relying on the torchlight, they advanced.

“Silica, keep one eye closed.”

“Huh?”

“When magical beasts appear, we’ll have to move away from the light. If that happens, the darkness will overwhelm your vision. This helps your eyes adjust faster, even a little.”

“But won’t that limit my field of view?”

“Leave that to the rear guard.”

I see, Silica thought—

—and at that very moment, two red, glowing eyes appeared before Evan and the others.

A magical beast.